Getting to know Arab perfumery
Living in Europe, it is hard to get acquainted with Arab perfumery. Although Arabia is a neighbouring region - if it comes to perfumery, people cannot tell you much. In my home town Bonn, there is definitely an Arab community. There are many immigrants from Arab countries, and continuously people from the gulf states are visiting Bonn since some hospitals have a good reputation over there. But people are ignorant and do not ask questions.
As a perfume lover, you will soon come across Montale and Micallef – these French brands were the first to bring some Arab style to the western market. Actually, my passion for perfume started with something Arab. I had always been wearing perfume, but without the internet which was not available in my earlier years, there was simply no chance to get any decent experience. Just like everybody else I occasionally bought what some badly educated clerks had recommended to me.
It was about four years ago when I strolled through the Nuremberg city centre. I wanted to beat the boredom so I entered a perfume chain store – I was in the mood to buy something. I saw they had more in stock than usual, and my interest was aroused. Why not discover some noble scents from Paris?
I tested a lot, but suddenly I came across “Aoud Man” by Micallef, and I was perplexed. How is it possible that something can smell that good? I had no idea what oud was about and that it had its background in Arab perfumery. I bought it on the spot. At home, I immediately looked for more information, found Basenotes, and that was it.
After joining Parfumo.de, I noticed that Don had some real Arab stuff in his collection that he might have brought home from Dubai. Since I tend to follow the try before you buy rule, I put it aside and focussed on the Montale Ouds.
One day, I got an excited call from DeGe53. She lives in the same town, we are almost neighbours. As usual she had taken the tram returning from her job. She was looking out of the window when she noticed that a new shop had moved in one of that old town houses along the track. Out of curiosity, she got out and had a closer look. It was a shop for Arab clothing but in the shop window there were also some squiggly little perfume bottles!
The Taiba Shop is only 5 minutes away from my place, and I certainly did not hesitate to pay it a visit. They have a big assortment of Arab perfumes, and it is a lot more to it than the usual rose and oud combo we know from Montale. Since their customers are not the wealthy visitors from the gulf states, they focus on the inexpensive brands like Al Rehab. Behind the counter, there is a cabinet with big glass bottles full of perfume oils they get from an unknown perfumer, and so you can buy fillings.
I soon learned that people in Arabia use perfume differently, just as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Traditionally, Arab perfumes come as perfume oil. They are sold in tiny 3-ml or 6-ml glass bottles. It is applied with a plastic pin rod or a roller ball. You can have it in your trouser pocket and use it whenever you like. I believe they simply do not make such a fuzz about perfume. Owning 10 or more perfumes is probably nothing special.
Traditional Arab perfumes are not overly artificial. Very often, the fragrances are solid without any development. The scent pyramid with top, heart and basenote is probably a western invention.
Besides Taiba Shop, I owe it to my samples swap with AbuSafiyya that I now have a very rough overview about the styles of fragrances they have. And it is not always oud!
The Musks
Musk is popular in Arab perfumery. A lot of musks are flowery-soapy. To me, they smell like nothing special, just like some cosmetic product or soap. However, this style is popular, obviously a lot of people around the world like to smell clean and soapy.
Just as in western perfumery, musk can be quite different. Next to soapy, creamy, powdery and flowery musks, there are the animalic ones. I have two Al Rehab musks I would classify as such: “Tagreed” and “Atheer”. They are extremely sweet, some oud may also be in it, and they rather have this “honey” style that some of the Micallef ouds have.
The Ouds
When it comes to oud, all I can say that the cheap ones can be horrible. Natural oud oils are by far too expensive to go into the mid market Arab perfumes. But not all is low quality.
And there is not just the well known combination with rose – I already mentioned the honey style.
My favourite Oud perfume is “Arooq Al Oud”, a 75 ml spray perfume which I bought at Taiba Shop for only 25 € (~ 32 USD). The flacon covers my page at Parfumo. It is neither flowery nor sweet, it just travels along the woody side with some amber and obviously sandalwood (Javanol?).
The Ambers
Amber has a different, probably more original meaning in Arab perfumery. Whereas the note 'amber' in western perfumery very often means something dry of indefinite character, Arabian amber seems much closer to the concept of natural amber resin being burnt. It is really smoky. The “Amber” I got from the big bottles at Taiba Shop makes me grin: it smells like a solid, heavily smoked German Schwarzwälder Schinken (Blackforrest Ham). I wonder what happens if I threw my mothers amber necklace into a pan and heat I up!
The Amber style is somewhat close to Oud, and I think they can be confused. For example, you could count in Montale's “Greyland” and “Amber & Spices” as oud.
The 'Sultans'
In Arab perfumery, I think, sometimes names are used to classsify a certain style. It seems, “Sultan” very often is something like a Fougère. It is herbal, tart, and it can also remind you of coniferous woods: “Sultan Super”, “Beirut”
The Mukhallats
Mukhallat ist the best of all because Mukhallat simply means blend. The Mukhallat I bough at Taiba Shop is a bit of everything: flowery, woody, musky, and with a touch of oud. I had to buy it repeatedly for my colleages at work. Everybody likes Mukhallat!
My knowledge and experience with Arab perfumery is far from complete – any contribution is highly appreciated!